John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 1:14

"The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up upon my neck; he hath made my strength to fail: The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand." — Lamentations 1:14 (ASV)

Here, again, Jerusalem confesses that God had been justly displeased. She had ascribed to God’s vengeance the evils which she suffered; but now she expresses the cause of that displeasure or wrath. Therefore she says, that the yoke of her iniquities had been bound in God’s hand. Though interpreters explain the words, they do not grasp the meaning of the Prophet, for they do not consider that there is a continued metaphor.

We should then bear in mind the two clauses — that God’s hand held the yoke tied, and also that the yoke was bound around the neck of Jerusalem. As when a husbandman, after having tied a yoke to oxen, holds a rein, and folds it around his hand, so that the oxen not only cannot throw off the yoke, but must also obey the hand which holds the reins; so also it is said, that the yoke of iniquities was fastened: “I bear the yoke,” she says, “but it is tied, and so fastened, that it cannot be shaken off; and then, however furious I may be, or kick, God holds the tied yoke by His own hand so as to constrain me to bear it.”

We now see, then, the design and import of the Prophet’s words, that God was justly incensed against Jerusalem and had justly used so much severity. Expressed at the same time is the atrocity of the punishment, though wholly just; for, on the one hand, Jerusalem complains that a yoke was laid on her neck, tied and fastened, and also that it was tied by the hand of God, as though she had said that she was under such a constraint that there was no relaxation. On the one hand, then, she bewails the grievousness of her calamity, and on the other, she confesses that she fully deserved what she suffered; and thus she accused herself, lest anyone should think that he clamored against God, as is commonly the case in sorrow.

It is added, He hath made to fall, or weakened, etc. The verb כשל, cashel, in Hilphil, means, as it is well known, to stumble, or to cause to stumble or fall. He hath, then, weakened my strength; the Lord hath given me up into the hand of my enemies, from whom I shall not be able to rise; that is, He has so subjugated me, and so laid me prostrate under the hands of my enemies, that there is no hope of rising again.

Were anyone to ask, “Why then does she pray, and again will pray often?” the answer is that when she says here that she will not be able to rise again, the reference is made to the outward state of things: in the meantime, the grace of God is not taken into account; and this grace goes beyond all human means.

She then says that, according to the thoughts of the flesh, she had no hope, because there appeared to be no means of rising. Yet she did not despair that God would eventually, by His almighty power, cause her to rise from fatal ruin.

And this is a mode of speaking that should be kept in mind, for hope sees things that are hidden. But at the same time, the faithful speak according to the common appearance of things, and when they seem to despair, they regard what falls under their own observation and judgment.

So then, Jerusalem now says that she could not rise unless God manifested His extraordinary power, which far exceeds all human means.